


Bloom

by whenineternal



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 07:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14806697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenineternal/pseuds/whenineternal
Summary: “Can we just kiss?” he asks and Johnny laughs because it’s just so Jaehyun





	Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> Time skip sort of, except it all takes place in the span of like three days...
> 
> I wrote this in an attempt to combat my insomnia so it's probably a mess but I hope it's likeable still

It’s the fifth morning in a row that Johnny wakes up with Jaehyun curled close to his chest. Most times Jaehyun is stretched diagonally across both their beds with his feet on his own side and his forehead pressed against Johnny’s sternum, but on that morning he is curled into a ball right beside him and is clutching Johnny’s t-shirt in a fist. 

Johnny doesn’t much mind the cuddling, thinks it would be alright if that was a thing that they did, but it’s the tiny whimpers Jaehyun makes every time Johnny has to untangle himself from him to get out of bed that makes him worry. Jaehyun isn’t clingy or needy or weak in anyway at all, but he tends to keep the bad stuff to himself and it leaves him vulnerable. Now, he doesn’t know  _ why _ Jaehyun is cuddling up to him in the middle of the night all of a sudden, but he can bet it’s not for anything good. 

He gently unfolds Jaehyun’s clenched fingers and leaves his hand on the duvet so he can curl his fist around that instead and carefully moves off the bed. He takes a moment to look at Jaehyun’s sleeping face and smiles. Everyone has always complained about what a light sleeper Jaehyun is, but after a couple months of rooming together Johnny has practically made an art of staying quiet enough not to wake him. 

Sure the younger won’t wake he sets about getting dressed and getting his first cup of coffee from the kitchen and then he settles on the edge of Jaehyun’s bed and waits for him to wake up. 

 

The remains of his coffee has stained the bottom of the mug by the time Jaehyun wakes, and Johnny only looks over the top of his book at him as he rolls around on the beds. He smiles when Jaehyun huffs lowly as he rolls over the small gap between their mattresses and only puts his book down when Jaehyun is squinting up at him with a tired pout forming his lips. 

“What are you doing?” Jaehyun asks, his voice hoarse with sleep.

“Waiting for you to wake up,” Johnny replies as he sits up straighter and pushes his glasses up his nose. “We need to talk.”

Jaehyun startles awake in a second, eyes blown wide and his lower lip disappears into his mouth. Johnny smothers a smile at the thought of how red and plump it will be later and turns to face Jaehyun more directly.

“Is it about the cuddling?” Jaehyun asks before Johnny can open his mouth. 

So he knows. Johnny thought he might, but he hadn’t ruled out that it was an unconscious act on Jaehyun’s part. 

“So you know,” he says and allows himself a fond smile when Jaehyun averts his eyes in embarrassment. His ears are even turning red.

“Jaehyun I don’t mind, i’m just curious why all of a sudden,” he asks and reaches for Jaehyun’s shoulder and gives it a comforting pat. Jaehyun is quiet for a long while and Johnny lets him think. It’s not easy getting Jaehyun to open up, but Johnny has the patience necessary to do it.

“Bad dreams,” Jaehyun finally whispers and his teeth chew aggressively on his bottom lip as he is obviously considering what more he should confess. Jaehyun may not be good at sharing, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily good at hiding things and Johnny can see the struggle cleanly in his eyes. 

“Just bad dreams,” Jaehyun says in the end and Johnny sighs. It’s better than nothing at least. 

“You make it better,” Jaehyun adds and he surprises Johnny enough with the admission that he lets an involuntary inquisitive sound. 

“Well I’m … glad I can help,” Johnny manages and he lays a hand on Jaehyun’s nape and gives it a gentle squeeze and they share a small smile.

 

Later that night when they go to bed, the last ones home as they normally are these days, Johnny waits with the lights on for Jaehyun to be done in the bathroom. He has pulled Jaehyun’s pillow close to his and he knows Jaehyun catches on to it fast when he stops at the side of the bed with one knee on the mattress. 

“What…” he says, voice trailing off. Johnny waves a hand at him and then reaches for Jaehyun’s wrist to pull him onto the bed.

“We are going to cuddle,” he says and gives Jaehyun a comforting smile as the younger carefully moves onto the bed and crawls over to Johnny’s mattress.

“But I haven’t had a nightmare yet,” he says after Johnny has pulled him to lie down next to him and Johnny wraps an arm around his back and frowns at Jaehyun’s choice of words. He had called them merely bad dreams that morning.

“Well that’s what we’re going to try and prevent,” he says and settles down as well.

“You said I make it better when you  _ have _ a nightmare, so maybe I can stop you from having one at all.”

Jaehyun settles down after that and it isn’t long before they both fall asleep, warm in each other’s arms, and sleep all through the night.

 

It’s been a long day of schedules and Johnny swears he will fall asleep if he has to sit in his wheelie chair a second longer. After so many months of hosting their radio show he has gotten used to finishing late at night, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still tiring. Jaehyun has been a little weird all day though, acting as if he has something important to tell Johnny or something, so instead of heading straight to the car he loiters in the hallway until they can get some space and privacy. Then he looks Jaehyun expectantly in the eye. 

“Um,” Jaehyun begins, fiddling with the sleeves of his soft-looking cardigan. 

“I wanted to thank you. For last night. I slept really good. No nightmares.” He speaks in choppy, short sentences interspersed with breathy laughs and it’s just so Jaehyun that he can’t help but feel fond. 

“I’m really glad I could help Jaehyun, I mean that,” he rests a hand on Jaehyun’s upper arm and gives it a gentle squeeze when Jaehyun smiles.

“I know.”

Then Jaehyun does something that takes him so off guard, he isn’t really sure how the next ten seconds really unfold. Jaehyun comes in for a hug, not something he does often, and for some reason Johnny’s head jerks a little to the side and their faces are so close he swears he can count the little flecks of lighter brown in Jaehyun’s eyes. It’s a weird moment at first, but then it’s a  _ moment _ , and Johnny can’t put it down to anything other than he’s been wanting this for a damn long time when he presses his mouth to Jaehyun’s in a kiss that is anything but chaste. 

Jaehyun doesn’t even hesitate. He kisses back with a fervor Johnny never would have expected and the thought that someone is waiting for them and they don’t have much time fades away as Johnny slips his tongue past Jaehyun’s lips and their kiss only lasts and lasts and lasts. Until Jaehyun breaks away and looks at Johnny almost like he’s scared of him and then he runs off towards the exit and leaves Johnny alone in the deserted hallway. 

 

Going to bed that night is perhaps the most surreal experience of Johnny’s life. Jaehyun doesn’t say a word and he stays firmly on his side of the bed and Johnny settles on his back with his hands behind his head. He knows he isn’t going to be able to sleep any time soon. 

His Jaehyun-induced insomnia has him awake for Jaehyun’s nightly terrors and his heart clenches painfully in his chest as he listens to the small whimpers that come from Jaehyun’s mouth as he nearly trembles under his thick duvet. This is not at all just bad dreams, he thinks and scoots up against Jaehyun’s back before he can convince himself not to. It doesn’t take long for Jaehyun to calm down once he is in Johnny’s arms and despite the awkward way they ended the evening it makes Johnny feel good inside to know that he can help. 

 

He doesn’t see Jaehyun all morning. Doesn’t see Doyoung either so he guesses the two are holed up somewhere together and he tries to pretend like the thought doesn’t make him a tiny bit sulky. It’s nothing new, Doyoung and Jaehyun have always spent a lot of time together, but Johnny hasn’t been maybe a little bit in love with Jaehyun before now. 

He goes back and forth a lot on whether or not he should talk to Jaehyun about what happened between them, but in the end he decides it’s something he can’t ignore. He was never any good at ignoring things anyway. 

The dorm isn’t big, but of course he only finds Jaehyun in the last place he thinks to look. On the balcony. With Doyoung as he predicted. 

Jaehyun doesn’t see him, but he knows Doyoung has, and for some reason Johnny stays behind the curtains and listen to the voices drifting in through the open balcony door. 

“ _ He _ kissed  _ you _ Jaehyun,” Doyoung is saying, sounding exasperated like they’ve been over this all before. 

“Now are you gonna act like some medieval-esque princess shmuck who needs to be  _ courted _ or are you gonna go get your man?!”

He can only imagine Doyoung said that for his sake and he almost laughs at the ridiculous analogy. Jaehyun groans loudly and there are slight scuffling sounds from the balcony before Doyoung yelps and walks hurriedly backwards into the living room. 

“Thanks Doyoung, I think I got it from here,” Johnny says then, loud enough for Jaehyun to hear him, and steps around Doyoung’s indignantly frowning form and shuts the balcony door behind himself. 

Jaehyun is standing with his back pressed against the wall and is staring at Johnny with that same look of almost fear, but not really fear, in his eyes as he had the day before. He opens his mouth presumably to speak, but Johnny closes the distance between them in three quick steps and presses his mouth to Jaehyun’s in a hard kiss.

“Don’t run away this time,” he jokes when he pulls away and he does laugh, a quiet breathy laugh, when Jaehyun shakes his head rapidly with his lips pressed tightly together. 

“Look, this is completely new to me, but I really want to kiss you. And hug you, and hold you in your sleep so you don’t have nightmares, and I kind of want to play with your fingers because they are just  _ really _ pretty, and I want you to want that too.” He laces his fingers with Jaehyun’s and tilts his head to the side as he looks fondly down into Jaehyun’s face. 

“And I think you d-” “I do!” Jaehyun interrupts in a strangely squeaky voice, clearing his throat embarrassedly afterwards.

“I really do,” he says in a voice more like his own, blinking rapidly as his eyes move from Johnny’s mouth to his eyes and back. 

“Can we just kiss?” he asks and Johnny laughs because it’s  _ just so Jaehyun _ . He doesn’t deny him though, and the way they kiss is so reminiscent of their first kiss that Johnny tightens his arms around Jaehyun and traps him against the wall to make sure he won’t leave him hanging again. 

“I’m sorry I ran,” Jaehyun whispers in between swipes of Johnny’s tongue inside his mouth.

“It’s okay,” Johnny murmurs back, “I know why you did.” And he does, and he only thinks it’s so endearing, and while he doesn’t say it just yet, it’s one of the reasons he loves Jaehyun the way he does. 

“I like you a lot,” Jaehyun says and he wraps his arms around Johnny’s neck so Johnny wraps his arms tightly around Jaehyun’s firm waist and shows him just how much he likes him back. He doesn’t need to say it anymore, he thinks. Words are overrated anyways. 


End file.
